1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to an operation device capable of forming an operation signal to an electronic apparatus in response to an operation by an operator and visually presenting a variety of information to the operator. Further, the present invention relates to an electronic book device equipped with the operation device and an electronic apparatus equipped therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
The electronic book device is portable and is capable of displaying book data stored in a memory on a screen (see, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-249344: hereinafter referred to as Document 1).
A given button or the like provided in the electronic book device is operated to flip pages of the electronic book. It is required to visually recognize, from page information displayed on the screen, whether pages has actually been flipped or at which position the current page displayed is located in the whole book. In the real book, it is possible to recognize the actual flipping of pages or the current position through tactile sense of a hand or fingers that hold or touch the book.
The device disclosed in Document 1 is equipped with a vibrator, which is vibrated at a frequency dependent on the current page position in-the whole book. The vibration thus generated is presented to the operator through the operator's tactile sense.
However, the device disclosed in Document 1 is separately equipped with the operation button and the vibrator. Thus, the operator cannot be given vibration unless the operator actually grips the electronic book device by hand and manipulates the operation button. Further, it is difficult to reliably recognize tactile information dependent on the operator's operation because vibration is not directly transferred to the end of the finger through which the operation button is operated.